Robert Pitcairn, Jr., son of a wealthy and prominent Pennsylvania
Railroad executive, hired the Greenes in 1906 to build his home
after he had lived in a house they had designed. The Pitcairn
house would combine the entire lexicon of their mature design
elements: a shingled exterior; a roof pitch of three feet, ten
inches in twelve feet; major interior and exterior timbers;
deeply overhanging eaves; exposed rafters, purlins, and beams
that project significantly beyond the eaves; “Malthoid”
roofing that integrates the roof with the rain gutters; an up-swept
“lift” in the ends of the ridge beam; basement ventilation
made of Chinese blocks of green-glazed terra-cotta; and casement
windows. Most important were the terraces and sleeping porches
that extend the outdoor living space on the upper level. They
adapted Japanese construction themes to Pasadena’s regional
conditions and their own aesthetic sense. They used keyed scarf
joints to decoratively join and strengthen in-line long timbers
and used wedges to fix rails to posts for the first time in
their designs. They also pioneered the artistic use of wrought-iron
straps to bundle posts and corbels. This was the first time
all of these design elements came together in one house. The
presentation drawings for the house show an American Indian
Navajo theme in the lead glass designs, but these designs were
abandoned during construction in favor of plain glass.